


Just Breathe (you're not drowning)

by the_sky_is_forever



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Lifeguards, M/M, Meet-Cute, Swimming Pools
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-31
Updated: 2016-01-31
Packaged: 2018-05-17 12:42:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5870020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_sky_is_forever/pseuds/the_sky_is_forever
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Enjolras' new job at the swimming pool leads him to rescue a drowning man who is actually very attractive.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just Breathe (you're not drowning)

**Author's Note:**

> i actually wrote this over a year ago but i just found it and realised i never put it on here i hope you like it?

It’s Enjolras’ first day at his new job. Admittedly, he hadn’t wanted this job, but Combeferre had insisted that he actually worked for once, if only to learn how it was to have a real job. What Combeferre hadn’t counted on was Courfeyrac, Joly, Bossuet, and Musichetta all convincing Enjolras to take the job as the lifeguard at the local swimming pool.

Enjolras was a good swimmer, and he’d had some training as a lifeguard when he was in his early teens, at his mother’s insistence, which made him qualified enough for the pool - who were struggling for staff - to take him on.

So, here Enjolras is, on his first day. He quite likes it, actually, it’s warm inside the pool hall, and the people in general are friendly and kind. He spends most of the time sat on his chair, watching people splash about or swim meticulous lengths of the pool.

He’d felt a little uncomfortable at the prospect of having to wear swimming trunks in public, but then he’d remembered that, oh, everyone would be.

His eyes catch on a group of rowdy children, one of whom has crossed into the swim lane that is specifically for people who just want to swim. He’s about to go tell them to settle down when a girl, seemingly a similar age to himself, swims across, fast as you like, and grabs hold of him, all but throwing him back where he belongs.

Enjolras watches her as she scolds the boy, her long, dark hair dripping with water, and her eyes bright in irritation. He smiles a little and leaves them to it, turning his eyes around the room.

Then- _oh, shit_.

Enjolras is out of his seat in seconds, and shouts loud and clear for everyone to get to the side of the pool.

There’s a man, in roughly the middle of the pool, who is most definitely struggling to stay above the water.

Enjolras dives into the pool and swims with strong, powerful strokes, over to him. He stops, just out of arms reach, and says, “Look at me, and try to breathe. I’m going to help you, okay?”

The man’s arms are flailing, and Enjolras instructs him to keep his arms below the water, and pauses as the man does his best to comply, before Enjolras wraps an arm around the man’s waist.

His dark eyes are panicked, and his black, curly hair is wet at the ends from trying to keep his head above the water. The man’s breaths are erratic and he’s clearly doing his best to not shove Enjolras away.

As soon as they are shallow enough, Enjolras asks him to put his feet on the floor, to let him know that he is safe.

He’s still shaky, however, so Enjolras keeps one arm around him. “Are you hurt?” Enjolras asks as he tries to make eye contact with the man.

The man shakes his head roughly, but his legs almost buckle beneath him, so Enjolras leads him over to the side of the pool, giving him something stronger to cling to than Enjolras.

The girl from before, the one with the kid, is making her way over, and Enjolras stops her. “Do you know this man?”

“Yes,” she snaps at him. “R?” she calls, over Enjolras’ shoulder. “Are you okay? I’m sorry I left you, I shouldn’t have, are you okay?”

She sounds concerned and genuine enough that Enjolras lets her pass. The man – R – seems to calm a little in her presence and she puts her arms around him, hugging him tightly. “It’s okay,” she says. “You’re safe, I promise. You’re not in any danger. The lovely lifeguard kept you safe, yeah?”

R nods, gulping and holding onto the girl, and Enjolras waits.

When the girl pulls back, she looks directly into R’s eyes. “You’re safe. Do you understand that?”

“Yes,” he whispers, his voice a little hoarse. “Yes, I’m safe, I’ve got it.”

She looks relieved.

When she turns back to Enjolras, she seems a lot more relaxed, and she thanks him, before saying that he can go back to his job now.

Enjolras pulls a face. “I’m sorry, but he needs to come to the office with me.”

The girl pulls a face too. “Why? He’s fine.”

“House rules,” Enjolras explains with a half-shrug, then he addresses the man, “Would you be alright coming with me, Sir?"

He shrugs. “I guess.” He’s not making eye contact with Enjolras, in fact, he’s pretty much looking anywhere that isn’t Enjolras. “Can Ép come?” he asks with a nod at the girl.

"Of course,” Enjolras says. He gently leads the two to the stairs and out of the pool. He tells them to wait right there, as he goes for a quick word with the other lifeguard, a man by the name of Bahorel, and then he takes them to the office.

He gets the man to sit down, while the girl hovers by his side.

Enjolras pulls up a chair opposite and looks directly at him. “Can you tell me your name?”

“Grantaire,” the man says, sounding sure of himself, at least in this, now he’s on dry land.

“And hers?” Enjolras presses, nodding at Grantaire’s friend.

“That’s Éponine.”

"Can I get you something to drink?” Enjolras then says, and Grantaire flinches.

Enjolras frowns at that, but Éponine jumps in with, “He means tea, or something like that, R.”

Grantaire breathes out heavily, and says, “Tea would be good,” in a small voice.

When Enjolras presses the mug into his hands, Grantaire glances up at Enjolras, making direct eye contact for the first time. Enjolras smiles encouragingly. Grantaire seems to go a little pale, and Enjolras suddenly thinks to get a towel for the man when he shivers.

Wrapping the towel around Grantaire’s shoulders, he says, “Are you going to be alright here, alone, for a moment?”

Grantaire shoots Éponine a look but nods, never-the-less. Enjolras looks at Éponine and gestures to the door.

When they get outside, Enjolras shuts the office door behind him. The dark haired girl gives him a sharp look, raising her chin and looking confident. She sighs, almost immediately, however, and says in a low voice, “You want to know what the deal is, right?” Enjolras doesn’t say anything and she shrugs. “He’s… He needed something to do with his time. I said I’d take him to the pool with me and my brother, Gav, but R can’t swim all that well. I left him for a moment, I thought he’d be okay. I should have known better. He’d have been fine, if it weren’t for-”

Enjolras cuts her off. “It wasn’t your fault.” Then he reconsiders, “Okay, it kind of was, but you didn’t have a choice, I saw you scolding what I assume was your brother.”

Éponine scowls. “Yes, that little shit.” She blushes. “Sorry, that sounded awful, I love my brother, honest. He’s just…”

Enjolras smiles. “No, I understand. I have a younger sister.” He pauses before adding, “May I suggest that you take Grantaire home? He seems a little shaken and I can’t allow you to let him back into the pool today.”

“Of course not!" Éponine looks horrified that Enjolras would even suggest that she’d let Grantaire back into the water.

Ten minutes later, Éponine has both her brother and Grantaire, and is directing both of the towards the changing rooms. Just before they go through the door, Grantaire looks back over his shoulder at Enjolras, and smiles.

A small, quiet, smile.

Enjolras blinks, and doesn’t have the chance to work his face into a smile too, before they’re gone.

-

"I’m home!” Enjolras calls as he pushes open the door.

“How was your first day, Sweetie?” Combeferre responds, and Enjolras rolls his eyes.

Enjolras strips of his coat and throws it over the back of the sofa, kicking off his shoes and settling down, as Ferre comes in from the kitchen. “I saved a man from drowning, and he was really attractive.”

Combeferre blinks. “I’m sorry, what did you just say?”

“I saved-”

“No, no, I heard you, I’m just struggling to understand,” Combeferre explains.

Enjolras continues to feign ignorance as to which part of his sentence he’s struggling with. “Well, I am a lifeguard, stopping people from drowning is in the job description.” Combeferre gives him a hard stare, and Enjolras smirks. “Alright, alright, yes I did just say that I found someone attractive. It came as as big a shock to me as to you.”

Truth be told, Enjolras hadn’t really been thinking about what Grantaire looked like at all – until the man had turned and smiled. At that point, Enjolras was truly, completely, fucked.

A short while later, a text comes through on Enjolras’ phone and he glances at it, surprised to see it’s from Musichetta.

**did u save a guy from death by water today**

Enjolras frowns, how could she possible know that?

**Yes, why?**

Her response is instantaneous and it explains… Well, nothing.

**hhhhhhbbbbbbbbjfhhfhaksha**

He chooses not to reply, instead putting his phone away and deciding it to be something he would find out about in time.

-

When he arrives at the Musain that evening, a lot of his friends are already there. Combeferre and Courfeyrac left ahead of him, since Enjolras had wanted to just write a couple of pages of schoolwork before he went out.

His sister, Cosette, is perched on Marius’ knee, who looks up at Enjolras’ entrance and says, “You’re late,” as has become his habit whenever he’s somewhere before Enjolras.

Enjolras scoffs at him and carries on across the room to where Combeferre and Courfeyrac are sat.

He comes to a sudden stop when he notices, out of the corner of his eye, Musichetta chattering away to two familiar faces.

Chetta’s serving some strangers drinks, but her body is turned in the direction of two people with dark hair, the girl with a confident pose, and the man leaning up against the bar like he might fall without it there.

Enjolras changes track immediately, and when he gets within earshot, he calls out, “Grantaire!”

The man in question spins round in surprise and his eyes go wide. “H-Hi, uh, Enjolras.”

He doesn’t remember telling Grantaire his name, so Musichetta must have, if that text earlier was anything to go by. He shrugs it off, internally. “How are you?”

Grantaire smiles, just a little, and says, “You mean in comparison to earlier when I almost drowned?”

Enjolras can’t help but laugh a little at that. “Yes, I would like to hope that you haven’t had any more near-death experiences today?”

Grantaire shakes his head. “No, I haven’t. That would be a little extreme, even for me.”

Éponine clears her throat, interrupting the two of them, and they turn back to the girls, having almost forgotten they were there. “Hi, Éponine,” Enjolras says, and she smiles at him graciously.

Musichetta raises her eyebrows at him when Enjolras glances her way and smirks, knowingly. Enjolras can’t stop himself from blushing, but he determinedly looks away from her to make eye contact with Grantaire again.

Grantaire smiles a little, and Enjolras blurts out, "Let me buy you a drink.”

Grantaire startles, and Éponine laughs before she can stop herself by slapping a hand over her mouth.

“You saved my life, shouldn’t I be buying you a drink?” Grantaire questions.

Enjolras shrugs. “I’m not really sure what the etiquette is here,” he admits with a soft laugh.

The look that Grantaire gives him then – a smile that looks nervous but happy – makes Enjolras feel more than a little nervous. Then, however, Grantaire says, “Okay.”

Éponine is watching very carefully and she says, “Just a soft drink, R, yeah?"

He rolls his eyes at her. “Obviously.”

Enjolras doesn’t question it, and when he turns to Musichetta she’s smiling and waiting for their order.

Éponine vanishes pretty quickly, and Enjolras spots her a while later talking to Courfeyrac and Combeferre on the other side of the room. Enjolras doesn’t spend much time thinking about it, not with Grantaire sat next to him, smiling and laughing.

Three hours later, they’re still sat there.

**Author's Note:**

> i have a writing blog (theskyis-forever) and a regular blog (nerds-are-cool) feel free to come chat and leave a prompt on my writing blog if you want! :)  
> also, if you enjoyed this: [buy me a coffee?](http://ko-fi.com/A831F9U)


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